You are accessing the Digital Archive of the Esteu accedint a l'Arxiu Digital del Catalan Catalan Review Journal. Review By accessing and/or using this Digital A l’ accedir i / o utilitzar aquest Arxiu Digital, Archive, you accept and agree to abide by vostè accepta i es compromet a complir els the Terms and Conditions of Use available at termes i condicions d'ús disponibles a http://www.nacs- http://www.nacs- catalanstudies.org/catalan_review.html catalanstudies.org/catalan_review.html Catalan Review is the premier international Catalan Review és la primera revista scholarly journal devoted to all aspects of internacional dedicada a tots els aspectes de la Catalan culture. By Catalan culture is cultura catalana. Per la cultura catalana s'entén understood all manifestations of intellectual totes les manifestacions de la vida intel lectual i and artistic life produced in the Catalan artística produïda en llengua catalana o en les language or in the geographical areas where zones geogràfiques on es parla català. Catalan Catalan is spoken. Catalan Review has been Review es publica des de 1986. in publication since 1986. Reviews: 1) Meryle Secrest: Salvador Dalí. A Biography (G. Duran); 2) Maria-Antònia Oliver: Study in Lilac (M. A. Esteban); 3) Manuel de Pedrolo, Final Trajectory (M. A. Esteban); 4) Montserrat Roig, La vell melodiosa (A. M. Forcadas and Betty Watson); 5) Pere Calders: Obra completa, 2 (A. M. Forcadas and B. Watson); 6) Manuel Bofarull: Els hereus de la terra (A. M. Forcadas and B. Watson); 7) Josep Pous i Pagès: Quan es fa nosa (A. M. Forcadas and B. Watson); 8) Joan Martí i Castell and Josep Moran: Documents d'història de la llengua catalana: Dels orígens a Fabra (Ph. D. Rasico); 9) David J. Viera: Medieval Catalan Literature: Prose and Drama (Ph. Rasico); 10) Philip D. Rasico: Els menorquins de la Florida: història, llengua i cultura (J. Salord); 11) Robert Archer: Tbe Pervasive Image. Tbe Role of Analogy in the Poetry of Ausiàs March (J. M. Sobrer); 12) Homage to Joan Gili(M. Vidal); 13)Francesc Eiximenis: Estetica medievale. Dell'eros, delia mensa e delia città (D. J. Viera). Catalan Review, Vol. III, number 1 (1989), p. 211-236 REVIEWS Meryle Secrest, Salvador Dalí, A Biography. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1986,3°7 pp. futer at least three autobiographies and too many biographies to mention about the very public private life of Salvador Dalí, why would anyone want to read still another tribute to the illustrioU6 Dalí? It may be that the art-Ioving and literary public is already saturated with Daliphernalia, and yet each new trove of shocking revelations about the craziest of all Catalans seems tó find a ready audi­ ence. This latest addition to Daliland is particularly irresistible because ofthe ex­ troadinary writing talent of the biographer, as well as a very knowledgeable ap­ proach to art criticism. Meryle Secrest uses Dalí's paintings to pell off still new underlayers ofhis Dnion personality, and also works in the reserve direction, dig­ ging up new facts and juxtaposing oid ones to explain such admittedly enigma tic works as The Persistence of Memory . The new biography spans Dalí's en tire life, from childhood to the present and is perhaps unique in its emphasis upon the role ofGala in shaping the artist's career. Heretofore unpublished facts about the life of the famous Russian wife of Dalí (and before him ofPaul Eluard) go far to explain Dalí's reputation for being acquisitive and mercenary. Dalí's extreme devotion to and dependence upon her also help to explain his pro-Franco position, since the need for safety for his half­ Jewish wife in a Europe dominated by Hitler outweighed by far his earlier f1irta­ tions with anarchy. Meryle Secrest presents a many faceted view of the painter: his own (usually mis lea ding or exaggerated) revelations; descriptions by his sister (who suffered a stormy relationship with her brother and who, therefore, can not be trusted to be much more objective than Dalí himself); statements by Lorca (who was appa­ rently in love with Dalí and eventually rejected by him), by Buñuel' who als o experienced a diflicult relationship with Dalí, and by a huge number of friends, associates, clientes, journalists, each with a different and often disturbing anecdote. The biographer weaves all these strands together with extraordinary skill, presenting a portrait of a highly maladjusted youth who disguises his fears and insecurity through braggadocio and all manner of bizarre behaviour, and, having gained fam e and fortune by a combination ofhis skill and Gala's manage­ ment, is forced to go on playing the role ofhis persona with increasingly outlan­ dish antics. The portrait is distressing and fascinating: a painter who dares reveal his most hideous perversions on canvass, but who is afraid of traims, of ships, of even walking home alo ne at night after visiting a neighbor. A man who is pi­ teously dependent on his wife for reassurance and support at every moment, yet who delies the sensibilities of the United States by capitalizing on the Lindberg baby's murder: he designs a costum e for Gala incorporating a dead.baby. It is cu­ rious how different bioigraphers of Dalí interpret this notorious costume de­ signed for the 1934 BaI Onirique which was given in Dalí's honor. Secrest who des­ cribes it as a headdress incorporating a baby's skull in the clutch of a lobster 213 214 CATALAN REVIEW seems to suggest that the inspiration might have been Gala's and ref1ect her rejec­ tion ofher own child. Whereas Carlos Rojas, who wrote an approach to El mundo mítico y magico de Salvador Dalí, published in 1985, beIieves that it is yet another example ofDalí's fixation with his dead brother as weII as an aIIusion to the.Lind­ berg baby. Although this incident itself is perhaps not important, the differing inter­ pretations do reveal a significant, difference of approach between Secrest's and other biographies of balí, · especiaIIy his own autobiographies. Secrest down­ grades most of the evidence suppIied by Dalí himself as selfpubIicizing fantasies and relies more heavily on the versions of events given by less subjective observ­ ers, üiends, business·associates, the press. Since Gala was often the intermediary in their dealings with Dalí, it is natural that her role be given greater importance than in past studíes. Gala, therefore, becomes Dalí's raison d'être and when in her eighties she de nies him her love and develops a fancy for younger men, Dalí's 'whóle world .coIIapses. Her death is anti-climax . .. For those .who wish to better understand this eriigmatic Catalan, this work presents a more balanced and readable analysis than many of the studies which have pr~ceeded it. For scholars dealing with Dalí the book is also invalua¡jle be­ . cause ofits fuII dOcumentation: source notes are provided for nearly every page . And althougthe "Select'Bibliography" seems perhaps a bit too select, the inclu- sion of all index (a notable abs en ce in many other books on Dalí) makesthis one a highly useful source for reference. GLORIA DURAN . UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT WATERBURY Maria-Antònia Oliver, Study in Lilac. Translated by Kathleen McNerney. Seat'tle: The Seal Press, 1987, 161 pages. $8,95. In these same pages, when reviewing Albert Forcadas and SheIIey Quinn's trans­ lation ofManuel de Pedrolo's Trajectefinal. I commented that Catalan lietrature exceIIed in many and varied gemes and deserved to be made better known to readers outside of Catalonia. If ever Catalan literature could have be en accused of excessive regionalism, those days have receded in to an almost forgotten past. With her translation of Estudi en lila, Professor McNerney has demonstrated, once again, that Catalan writers have reached such a degree of sophistication and controIIed mastery of their medium that they can be judged quite successfuIIy against the acknowledged masters of their respective gemes. As Kathleen McNerney explains in a brief (two pages) but very informative preface, Maria-Antònia Oliver, born in the island ofMajorca in 1946, belongs to REVIEWS 215 an unusual cooperative of writers who collectively sign their books with the name Ofèlia Dracs. "Ofèlia», NcNerney further c1arifies, takes her inspiration from a number of mas ter of the genre : Dashiell Hammet, Erle Stanley Gardner, and Raymond Chandler. Stlldy in Li/ac, published in catalan in 1985, is Oliver's first detective nove!. A instant hi t, it was recently followed by the nowadays unavoidable seque!. In fact, such has been the success of this novel that the protagonist will also be the main character of a series of detective stories on the radio. Study in Li/ac is a fast-paced thriller set in contemporary Barcelona. Ihe pro­ tagonist, a tough but very likeable detective, is confronted with two major prob­ Iem s which, seemingly unconnected, from the core of the social is sues raised by the author. Lònia Guiu, the private eye, is hired to locate a run-away teenager. When she finally finds Sebastiana, she is faced with a traumatized rape victim, unable to seek confort from her parents and torned between her desire to seek an abortion and the heavy weight of her moral and religious upbringing. Despite her efforts, Guiu is unable to prevent a tragic denouement to this first problem. Further, in an attempt to resolve the second problem, she almost becomes an un­ witting accessory to murder. Hired by Miss Gaudí, a mysterious and fascinating antique dealer, to locate three men who allegedly defrauded her, Guiu, whose search takes her from the best to the worst parts ofBarcelona and from the homes of the wealthy and powerful to the world of prostitution and the seedy docks of the city, stumbles into an illegal and deadly import/export bussines that al most costs her her own life.